February 07, 2012

5th Annual UNC/Duke Poll

When North Carolina and Duke take to the floor tomorrow night the state's voters will be rooting for the Tar Heels. 41% say they'll be rooting for UNC to 31% for the Blue Devils. That's actually the closest spread PPP has found between the two schools in five years of asking this- in previous years voters favored the Heels by anywhere from 14 to 16 points.

One thing we did different this year was ask supporters of the other major schools in the state who they pull for in the UNC-Duke clash. Wake Forest fans go overwhelmingly for Duke (43-17), while East Carolina partisans prefer the Tar Heels 41-22. NC State fans split almost evenly with 37% going for UNC to 36% for Duke.

We went a little more in depth than usual this year on how UNC and Duke fans view their opposing school:

-UNC fans are more inclined to root against Duke when the two schools aren't playing each other than Duke fans are to root against UNC. 36% of Tar Heel partisans say they generally root against the Devils to 23% who say they usually root for them and 41% who don't care. Carolina fans describing themselves as 'hardcore' tend to pull for Duke to lose by a 66/12 spread.

Duke backers are more evenly split. 35% say they generally root for UNC and 35% say they generally cheer against UNC. As with the UNC fan base, 'hardcore' Duke fans are much more interested in seeing the Tar Heels lose- 53% generally want their rival to fail to 32% who want them to succeed.

This divide between 'hardcore' and moderate to casual fans is something we see pretty much any time we poll on college sports. The diehard fans who want their rival school to lose every game are a relatively small part of the fan base.

-There's a decent amount of mutual respect between the two fan bases. 53% of UNC fans say that they respect Duke to 33% who say they either don't like them very much or hate them. 49% of Duke fans respect UNC to 38% who don't like them very much or hate them. That's a finding that will doubtless warm the hearts of the Atlantic Coast Conference and its incessant ads about respect.

The greatest level of disdain in North Carolina college sports actually flows from NC State fans toward UNC- only 28% of them respect the flagship while 57% say they don't like it very much or hate it.

-Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski are both highly respected figures in North Carolina. Williams is viewed favorably by 51% of voters to just 10% who see him negatively. He's at 72/6 with UNC fans and 48/13 with Duke fans. Krzyzewski is also seen positively by 51% of voters, although his negatives are a little higher at 15%. He's at 76/4 with Duke fans and 46/27 with UNC fans.

North Carolina has an open Governor's race this fall and Williams and Krzyzewski are both popular and somewhat political so we looked at what would happen if they duked it out- Krzyzewski edges Williams 34-31. That's largely because Duke Democrats support Krzyzewski by 15 points, while UNC Republicans favor Williams by only 3.

Taking off the pollster hat all of this talk of mutual respect makes me want to vomit in my mouth. My name is Tom Jensen and I'm a Tar Heel. I hate Duke, I hate Mike Krzyzewski, and I want Duke to lose all games in all sports unless they're playing NC State in football or baseball. But I guess that makes me a minority within our fan base.

I don't hate Carolina, but I like rooting for their opponent almost as much as I like rooting for Duke ('94). I was thinking yesterday, though, it's really tough being an ABC (Anybody but Carolina) fan as you are bound to be disappointed about 80% of the time. Not to mention, their awesome penchant for coming back and winning when lesser teams have them on the ropes leads to even more ultimate disappointment. Having a great rival like Carolina does make being a Duke fan much more fun.

A few comments. 1 - What makes you think fans of other schools particularly care about this game? How much do you care about the Maryland-UVa game or the Wake-State game? Few of the State alums I knew watched this game last night, and NONE of them rooted for either team. Some may have rooted harder against one team, but the general consensus was to hope for the building to collapse. (If you're curious, I am here because an NCSU message board posted a link to this page while joking about the results.) 2 - Duke 19%, NCSU 18%? Have you ever been to North Carolina? 3 - "Respect the flagship"? Which flagship? Most NCSU fans respect NCSU, one of the two flagships. Some of them probably also respect UNC, the other co-flagship, and Duke, the top-rated school (public or private) located in the state.

(Name is required. Email address will not be displayed with the comment.)

Name is required to post a comment

Please enter a valid email address

Invalid URL

This weblog only allows comments from registered users. To comment, please enable JavaScript so you can sign in.

PPP POLLS BY YEAR: 2006-2015

We came to PPP after a public poll in the San Jose Mayoral race showed our opponent ahead by 8 points. They found our candidate (Sam Liccardo) ahead by 3 points and that allowed us to be able to push back with the press against the perception that our opponent was now a strong favorite in the race. Sam ended up winning by 2 points and is now the next Mayor of San Jose. PPP worked very fast and had a very accurate read on the electorate when we needed them–Eric Jaye, Storefront Political Media.

Advertisement

HIRE PPP

Dean DebnamPublic Policy Polling CEO

PPP is best known for putting out highly accurate polling on key political races across the country, but we also do affordable private research for candidates and organizations. Why pay tens of thousands of dollars for a survey when one of the most reliable companies in the nation can do it for less?"